There used to be a population of breeding ospreys along the coast of Portugal, but in the last century numbers declined drastically, due to shooting and disturbance, leaving just one pair. In the late 1990s I was asked by a group of Portugese ornithologists about the possibility of reintroducing ospreys. Pedro Beja and Rita Alcazar came to see our project at Rutland Water and the breeding ospreys in Scotland. In the autumn of 1997 Luis Palma from Faro University and his colleagues organised a workshop of experts to discuss their project, which they then put to their government in Lisbon. Unfortunately, they never had a positive reply and, finally, the last male bird disappeared as well.
In 2011, Luis, Pedro and their colleagues finally got permission to proceed with an osprey reintroduction and with the support of Finnish and Swedish ornithologists, young ospreys were translocated and released in eastern Portugal. In 2012, Roy Dennis was invited to attend the annual workshop on the reintroduction project to Portugal and more young ospreys arrived from Scandinavia for release in July 2012.
